I am I am. I'm glad I am.

A few years ago I went hiking on the Appalachian Trail in Virginia. There are many miles of AT in Virginia – but I got on it near Rt 7 (as it heads west from DC). I slept in a hostel called “Bear’s Den” hostel. The next day I went hiking out and enjoyed a 10 mile hike in the woods. It was in the fall, so I was wearing my orange so as not to get hit by a round off the gun of a hunter.

That night, I was resting in a lean-to and figured I would be spending the night alone. Nope. Some creepy guy came up to me and started asking me questions like “Are you scared to sleep alone” and “I hope you don’t mind me smoking pot”. I was like, “Uh, yeah, you’re creepy” (in my head). And I packed up my things and started to hike back out to my car (10 miles away)

But it was getting dark. And cold.

Little did I know, I was going to be hiking right past “Mount Weather”. Which is some sort of secret (or not so secret) facility where they operate FEMA, some parts of Homeland Security and other things. That explains why they wouldn’t let me in for a drink and looked at me like I was crazy hiking by their facility at 11pm.

Anyway, I just remembered that trip and thought I would look it up on Google Earth. I also remember hiking and finding a base that was clearly located inside a mountain – but it wasn’t NORAD (or maybe it was) but it was located in Western Maryland … and I thought it started with a “K” but I can’t remember the name now. Oh well.